Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)

Desk Set and Colossus: The Forbin Project were the initial two films on my first movie list about computer technology on celluloid. Like Network and Forbidden Planet, Colossus is an intelligent and insightful movie that proved seminal to many others depicting the future. Released in 1970 (though the film itself shows the date in Roman numerals as 1969), the computer technology is of course dated but the human story is dead-on as a fable for all future times. The script ably negotiates the daunting challenges of a massively sophisticated computer that decides the most logical thing is for it to take total control of all human society -- even lulling the military-political-industrial complex and setting traps before exacting its megaton "lessons" on humanity. Eric Braeden is a TV actor who does quite well in the Sean Connery-like lead role of Dr. Forbin and Susan Clark (Airport) is his teammate and "mistress." (Since this is still the demure 1960s, you can just make out her breasts through the glass vase before she slips into the bedroom to hide under the covers and engage in pillow talk like none you've ever heard. Austin Powers hasn't done anything but steal from every other movie before it.) Gordon Pinsent is the Kennedyesque U.S. President, with chief advisor William Schallert (whose venerable career spans from 1947-2007 and counting). Interestingly, Colossus was the real-life name of a top-secret British computer that wasn't revealed until 1974. Colossus: The Forbin Project is not about CGI and special effects -- since neither is real life -- but about the moral dilemmas that human actions create and that require human action (or rebellion) to rectify. Taken in its historical and cultural context, Colossus chillingly and memorably identifies and addresses those questions in dramatic fashion -- and leaves them open for further discussion, refusing to neatly package the story as if it were an intellectual snack or pop-cultural junk food. Seen with eyes from the era that predated personal and handheld computers, Colossus remains timeless. 5 stars.